Justice League Incarnate #1

Justice League Incarnate #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Joshua Williamson & Dennis Culver

Illustrated by Brandon Peterson, Andrei Bressan & Tom Derenick

Coloured by Hi-Fi

Lettered by Tom Napolitano

After the shocking ending of Infinite Frontier, Justice League Incarnate defends the Multiverse from Darkseid across infinite Earths! Following a devastating defeat at the hands of the one true Darkseid, the Superman of Earth-23 leads a team of superheroes from myriad worlds that includes Flashpoint Batman, China’s Flash from Earth-0, Captain Carrot from Earth-26, and the brand new superhero DR. MULTIVERSE from Earth-8 in a last ditch effort to stop the end of every possible universe as we know it!

Not going to lie, my main reason for reading this Captain Carrot, that he’s a member of this team, was an automatic draw for me to be a part of this adventure. I have him tattooed on my shoulder after all. Of course if this weren’t done so darn well I don’t know if we’d be here right now talking about the book. I love that Joshua and Dennis dive right into this and bring us the action straight away and I reckon that since this is going to be one of those breakneck speed types of series and I am definitely all for that. I’m already intrigued and we’ll see how many of the worlds introduced are worthy enough for us to come back to at a later date.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in establishing and continuing to flesh out their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters and the story makes me want to see more of these worlds.

I am a big fan of the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. What I like about these layers is that they open up new avenues to be explored and between the introduction of Doctor Multiverse and Earth-8 these add so much great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

I’m actually really impressed with the interiors here. While there are three different artists on this, they are so good and they get so close to each other's style of work that it barely feels like there’s any difference. Let’s face it I haven’t seen Darkseid look this menacing since the Great Darkness Saga so I’m all in on that! The linework that we see is clean, crisp and sharp so that along with the varying weights and techniques that we see creating the detail within the work is exceptionally well rendered. Backgrounds not only enhance and expand the moments beautifully but they also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some remarkably talented eyes for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work so a stellar eye for how colour works. I also think that such cohesive colouring is what makes the work so seamless.

​

With some great new realities, strong characters, excellent writing with superb characterisation alongside some beautifully bespoke interiors this for me represents the future of DC Comics.